Window Earrings or Cell Phone Dangles
Have fun creating these earrings or cell phone dangles with resin windows. The clay techniques are basic, and if you have wanted to try your hand at some fun projects using Lisa Pavelka’s Magic-Glos, you’ll have fun and make some discoveries. TOOLS: ● Pasta machine or acrylic rolling rod with spacers to keep clay at an even thickness ● Clay blade ● 1 inch circle cutter ● Tiny heart cutter about ½ inch; I use the one from the Polyform set ● Rubber stamp ● Work tile ● Pliers for assembling finished pieces - chain nose or flat nose ● UV lamp or sun light SUPPLIES ● White Premo clay, ½ of a 2 oz. block ● Magic Transfer Paper ● Pearlescent Crimson Brilliance Pigment Ink or pigment ink of your choice
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400 grit wet/dry sand paper Lisa Pavelka’s Magic-Glos Finishing materials such as jump rings, ear wires, cell phone cords Optional Tiny Tats by Lisa Pavelka, or tiny charms “1 plastic such as the packaging that batteries come in with the #1 inside the triangle marking on the package OR a small square of wax paper
PRE-REQUISITES If you have never worked with Magic Transfer Paper or Magic-Glos it would be a good idea to do a couple of little sample experiments first. It’s also advisable that you go to Lisa’s web site to look at her video on how to use Magic-Glos. For this project you will be doing some things differently, but it would be good to know her tips and tricks first. Let’s get started!
Load the best area of the stamp with ink. Press the Magic Transfer Paper (MTP) onto the stamp and rub gently all over to make sure you have captured the entire image. Note: I prefer this to stamping directly on the clay. The stamp won’t slip and smudge like it can on clay, the ink dries faster, and I can make sure I have the whole image without making an impression in the clay. Here’s my image after removing the stamp. Follow the instructions that come with the MTP to transfer this image onto a small sheet of white clay. I rolled my to a #5 thickness on an Amaco machine, which is the third thickest setting.
Here is the clay after the MTP has been rinsed off. Use the 1-inch circle cutter to cut two circles. TIP: If you have a tile small enough to fit into your oven, do this step on the tile so you won’t be distorting it by moving it. TIP: Before cutting, cover your clay with a bit of deli wrap. This will give the top edges of your circles just a bit of rounding. Set this aside for a bit while we make the resin heart window inserts. We are going to take advantage of the fact that Magic-Glos will not stick to raw clay. We are going to make little heart-shaped windows that will fit perfectly into the clay circles you just made, and you won’t have to worry about leaks and drips. I have rolled out a bit of black clay to a #5 on my machine, placed it on the #1 plastic, and cut two hearts using the ½ inch cutter.
Remove the centers and use a toothpick or the tip of a paintbrush to clean up the edge of the cut if necessary. You have created a dam that will hold the resin while it cures, and then it will remove cleanly.
Fill the two cavities with Magic-Glos. NOTES ON REMOVING BUBBLES You can’t use heat! It will melt the plastic. That’s O.K. You can gently tap the plastic on the table a few times to ease the bubbles to the surface where you can pop them with a pin or toothpick. Or if a bubble is already on the surface but won’t pop, use a light touch with a clean dry finger and press it gently onto the bubble. It, and a bit of resin around it, will lift out. Cure the resin under UV light as directed on the package and/or Lisa’s online video. Peel off the clay. The edges of my hearts look dark but that’s not clay; that’s just the lighting. Note that even if you filled the cavities to the top, the hearts might still be a bit concave. That’s O.K. as we’re going to add more any way. Get your clay blade, and gently and carefully slip it under the resin hearts to remove them from the #1 plastic. NOTE: If by any chance you work with regular two-part resin and have the special release agent for molding it, DO NOT be tempted to use that release for this technique. It reacts with the #1 plastic and the MagicGlos and fuses them together. Wanna know how I know that???????
Here are our hearts. You can trim rough edges with scissors or use 400 grit sand paper ONLY on the edges. At this point, these are a bit concave. This is where you can add Tiny Tats or teensie little charms, and then cover with another layer of the Magic-Glos and cure again. If you want to leave them clear, that’s fine. Add another layer of Magic-Glos and make sure the tops are attractively rounded. Since there is no other plastic, you can use Lisa’s recommended heat techniques for removing bubbles if necessary. O.K. - Now back to our clay. Use the same little heart cutter to cut the centers out of the clay circles and bake them according to package directions. WHILE THE CIRCLES ARE STILL HOT from the oven, press your Magic- Glos hearts into place. in the center openings. As the clay cools, it will tighten up the teeniest bit and lock in the hearts. Check front and back and if you don’t like the amount of mounding or clarity, add another layer of Magic-Glos and cure it. Use 400 grit wet/dry sand paper to sand JUST the edges of the circles. You can leave the backs blank if you like them that way. I used the same ink on just a corner of my stamp, and carefully (so as not to get any ink on the Magic-Glos) touched the backs of the circles to the stamp to dress up the backs just a bit. If you like to, you can then use a sealer on the front and/or back. I used a satin finish sealer, so all that’s shiny is the little seethrough heart in the middle.
Drill your holes and mount on ear wires. Now, let’s do something else with this to add some texture for the cell phone dangle. After that, we’re going to talk about wax paper for a moment.
As before, make your circle and cut out the heart center. Bake it. Press the heart into the center. Sand the edges. Cover the entire front with a layer of MagicGlos. Not just the heart this time - cover the whole thing. Cure it. Flip it over and use the tip of your finger to apply a very small amount of Magic-Glos. to the back side of the heart. You don’t want full coverage here. You want to take advantage of the property that keeps it from making a solid layer. Let it separate and leave little areas that have no new Magic-Glos. Cure it.
Unfortunately this stuff is camera-shy! Once cured on the BACK of the piece, from the front this looks like good old fashioned privacy glass. Drill the hole and turn it into a cell phone dangle or a small pendant. Or make another one just like it for a different take on earrings.
ABOUT WAX PAPER Yes, you CAN use wax paper instead of #1 plastic. to make the little heart windows. Put the raw clay on the wax paper and cut out the two heart cavities just as before, and fill with
Magic-Glos then cure it. Remove the raw clay. Now it gets just a bit tricky. Go ahead and peel the cured hearts off the wax paper. It will leave a bit of wax residue, and it could also leave a bit of “paper fuzz”. No problem. Wash it off with water. Gently rub it but don’t use anything abrasive that will scratch the Magic-Glos. It will still look a bit hazy. No problem. Dry it thoroughly, flip it over and put a coating of Magic-Glos on the back side and cure it. Your heart will now be clear, as long as you removed all of the wax and paper fuzz. This approach can be used to make little windows in anything that is flat. It just needs to be small enough to fit into the UV lamp, or you need a sunny day in order to cure larger items. But, what about CURVED surfaces? Hmmmmmm. Check out last month’s project to make an oval candy box with windows on the front! Tutorial by Jill Kollmann: http://www.jkollmann.etsy.com/